Important Update

ALM Media, LLC (“ALM”) continues to embrace a larger digital presence in order to provide its customers quality products and services at a faster pace. In order to create better products and build an enhanced experience for its customers, ALM has made some changes to the way it uses the information it collects. Therefore the Privacy Policy has been updated, and the new Privacy Policy (“Policy”) is effective on April 12, 2016.

PRIVACY POLICY OVERVIEW

This website is owned and operated by ALM Media, LLC (“ALM”), a Delaware limited liability company with offices at 120 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10271. References to “ALM,” may be construed as references to ALM and its parents, subsidiaries, or divisions, including but not limited to, ALM Media Properties, LLC, ALM International, Ltd. and ALM Media Canada, Inc. This Policy applies to information collected on this website and any ALM website accessed via a user’s computer, mobile, e-reader, tablet or other device (“Device”) used to access the online services, and applications and sites affiliated with ALM products, that link to this Policy (collectively, the “Online Services”). This Policy is incorporated into and subject to the terms of use of this website (“Terms of Use”). Each time that you access or use the Online Services, you signify that you have read, understand and agree to be bound by the Terms of Use and this Policy. If you do not agree to the Terms of Use and this Policy, you must discontinue using our Online Services.

Changes to this Privacy Statement

From time to time, ALM may update its Policy. ALM will post the new Policy with a new Effective Date to notify you of these changes. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back to this Policy frequently for updates. By accessing the Online Services after the Effective Date, you are deemed to consent to our then-current Policy.

HOW DO ALM AND THIRD PARTIES GATHER AND/OR TRACK INFORMATION ABOUT YOU?

Information You Provide

Email Newsletters: When you sign-up to receive free ALM email information newsletters, ALM may require that you supply your name, email address and other information.

Registration for Other ALM Products, Services and Events: When you register to receive ALM products or services or sign up for various events, whether they are free or paid, and whether they are offered by us or provided in association with our third party partners, ALM may require that you supply your full name, email address, contact information, and other information. In some instances, ALM also collects credit card information to bill subscribers for premium products and to bill attendees for events.

Sweepstakes, Contests and Promotions. We may offer sweepstakes, contests, and other promotions (a “Promotion”) that may require registration. You will be asked to provide certain information in order to participate in any such Promotions, and any information you provide may be may be used and disclosed as set forth in this Policy, as well as in connection with the administration of such Promotion and as required by law or permitted by the Promotion’s official rules.

Job Applications: When applying for select job postings at ALM via the Online Services, you may elect to send us your resume or other relevant information online. Personal information collected in association with job postings at ALM will be used for the purpose of accepting and evaluating candidate submissions for job postings.

Research Surveys. You may elect to provide information in connection with ALM research surveys or research surveys offered in conjunction with our advertisers and/or partners.

Credit Card Information: If you use a credit card to pay for any ALM products or services, ALM may retain your credit card information in order to renew your account in the event you elect to renew your subscription. You should never provide detailed credit card information directly to ALM via an unsecure form (such as email).

Partner Products & Services Offered on the Online Services: Third parties, such as partners, sponsors or advertisers whose services are promoted or advertised on the Online Services may request that you provide personal information. Please see below for further details about this.

Third Parties: ALM may collect information about you that ALM receives from other sources.

Information Collected from Tracking Technologies

Information Collected Using Technology. ALM may use a variety of technologies (collectively, “Tracking Technologies”, which are further described here) to gather personal and non-personal information (which is any information that does not reveal your specific identity) automatically (or passively) whenever you visit or interact with the Online Services. We also work with third parties to provide certain functionalities on the Online Services and to improve the effectiveness of the Online Services and its content. Separate and distinct from information ALM shares with third parties (as further described below), third party companies may also use Tracking Technologies to independently collect and store information about you and your usage of the Online Services and may combine this information with information they collect from other sources. Please note, we do not control Tracking Technologies used by third parties, and their use may be governed by the privacy policies of the third parties employing the Tracking Technologies. Some of the Tracking Technologies that may be used to collect information are described below. To learn how to turn off certain Tracking Technologies, see below.

Device Information. ALM may collect certain, non-personal information about the Device you use to access ALM’s services, including but not limited to IP addresses for your Devices, unique device identifiers, browser types, browser language and other transactional information that does not personally identify you.

User History: ALM may log certain usage information about your use of the Online Services, which may include a history of the pages you view. If you download and use any ALM software application on your Device, the log files will automatically be collected by the application and sent to ALM’s servers when your Device syncs up for the latest content available.

Mobile/Location Information. We may collect additional information from you if you access the Online Services through a mobile device, for example your unique device identifier, device’s operating system, mobile carrier, or location when you opt in for us to do so. However the degree to which your location can be identified depends on the device you are using (e.g. laptop, smartphone, tablet) and how you are connected to the internet (e.g. via cable broadband connection, WiFi, etc.). If you enable location services for the Online Services we may collect regional location data periodically as you use or leave open the Online Services. We may also collect your location information from you IP address or zip code. We may also use location data internally or in conjunction with our third party service providers to customize your experience and provide offers that may be relevant to you. Depending on the platform you use to access the Online Services (e.g., Apple™ iOS, Google™ Android, Windows, etc.) you may be able to control from within the settings on your wireless device whether location data is collected.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SERVICES AND LEXISNEXIS:

When you log into ALM through your LexisNexis account or social networking accounts, link your social networking accounts with the Online Services or engage with Online Services through the LexisNexis platform or third party social media platforms, you understand that you may be allowing us ongoing access to certain information stored on those platforms. In addition, as you interact with the Online Services, you may also be providing information about your activities to LexisNexis or the third party social networking platforms, as applicable. You should make sure that you are comfortable with the information such services may make available to us by visiting the applicable platforms’ privacy policies and/or modifying your privacy settings directly with those platforms.

WHAT DOES ALM DO WITH THE INFORMATION IT COLLECTS?

ALM uses your personal and non-personal information that it collects from you and about you for the purposes set forth below. For the avoidance of doubt, ALM may use and disclose non-personal information for any purpose, except where ALM is required to do otherwise under applicable law. If ALM is required to treat non-personal information as personal information under applicable law, then ALM may use and disclose it for all the purposes for which ALM uses and discloses your personal information. ALM may use the information collected from one portion of the Online Services on other portions of the Online Services, and ALM may combine information gathered from multiple portions of the Online Services into a single record. ALM may also use or combine information that ALM collects offline or from third-party sources with your information collected from the Online Services. Additionally, data collected from a particular browser or Device may be used with another computer or Device that is associated with the browser or Device on which such data was collected, or transferred to a third party who may be able to track your activity across Devices. ALM may use this information to:

Enable Usage: ALM uses the information it gathers about you to enable your use of ALM’s products and services, including but not limited to accessing the Online Services, receiving e-newsletters, renewing paid services, participating in message boards and receiving requested product and services.

Data Enhancement. ALM may acquire information from other trusted sources to update or supplement the information that you provided or we collected automatically, such as information to validate or update your address or other information.

Customizing Your Experience on the Online Services: ALM uses the information that it collects and acquires to customize your user experience on the Online Services, including delivering content to you that we think would be most relevant and of interest to you and providing you with an enhanced experience based on the type of Device you are using.

Advertising. We use third-party ad servers and ad networks that use tracking technology to collect information about your visits on other services and when you access the Online Services to send you targeted advertisements. They automatically receive your IP address or mobile device identifier when this happens. They may also use Tracking Technologies to measure the effectiveness of advertisements and to personalize the advertising content and to serve you advertisements that are relevant to your regional location. We may also use information collected using third party cookies and beacons on the Online Services and in our emails to deliver advertising about the Online Services displayed to you on third party services. Google is one of the companies that we use to serve advertising and perform analytics on some of the Online Services. We and third party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to report how our ad impressions, other uses of ad services, and interactions with these ad impressions and ad services are related to visits to the Online Services. To learn about Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs for the Web, click here.

Statistical Analysis: ALM may perform statistical, and marketing analyses of user behavior for a variety of purposes, such as to measure interest in the various areas of ALM sites, to better understand subscription and purchasing patterns for product development purposes and to inform advertisers about ALM’s subscriber base. ALM also uses third parties to provide ALM with information, reports and analysis about the usage and browsing patterns of users of ALM products and services. Such third parties track and analyze non-personally identifiable usage and volume statistical information about ALM visitors and customers with respect to the Online Services and track and analyze anonymous usage and browsing patterns of users of the Online Services.

Account Maintenance and Service Updates: ALM may utilize the contact information you provided at registration, such as your telephone number and email address, to contact you regarding your account, your subscriptions and other products or services which you have requested or in which you are currently enrolled. These may include order confirmations, renewals/expiration notices, notifications about credit card issues, and changes to the subscriber agreement and ALM products.

Push Notifications. The Online Services may include a function that allows us to use push notifications to send you updates, communications, and other messages about the Online Services. To opt out of getting these push notifications or other messages, you must turn off the push notification function within your device settings.

E-Mail Newsletters: If you have registered to receive email newsletters, you shall receive emails specifically for such newsletters. If you choose to no longer receive such email newsletters, you may unsubscribe from such emails (see below for instructions).

E-Mail Promotions. ALM may also periodically send you email messages about products and services that ALM or its partners think may be of interest to you. If you choose not to receive such emails, you may unsubscribe from such emails (see below for instructions).

Other Emails: If you use the “Email This Article” feature to email links to articles, the email that you supply to ALM may be saved for your convenience only (for clarification, any such email address provided to email links to articles will not be used or shared by ALM for any other purpose). If you send ALM emails, you should be aware that any information provided in an email may not be secure or encrypted and therefore may be available to others. Please exercise caution if you decide to disclose any personal or confidential information in such email and please be advised that you should not provide detailed credit card information directly to ALM via an unsecure form (such as email). ALM representatives shall use your email address to respond to any of your questions or comments.

Administrator Uses. If your use of the Online Services is managed for you by an account administrator then your account administrator and resellers who provide user support to your organization may have access to your personal information (including your email and other data). Please refer to your account administrator’s privacy policy for more information.

Archival Purposes. Personal and other information that you provide to us in the course of participating in the Online Services may be gathered and stored in one or more of our corporate databases. We may retain information from canceled accounts to comply with law, prevent fraud, assist with investigations, resolve disputes, analyze or troubleshoot programs, enforce our terms of use, or take other actions permitted by law. We may also retain information to prevent re- registration in the event that your account has been suspended or terminated or to create an archival copy of your information, which might be used by us for recordkeeping and internal purposes. We will retain your information for the period of time necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy unless a longer retention period is permitted or required by law.

WITH WHOM DOES ALM SHARE THE PERSONAL INFORMATION IT COLLECTS?

ALM may, on occasion, choose to share the personal information collected about users with select third parties for certain purposes, such as the following.

Third Party Promotions. ALM may share your personal information with select third parties so that they may provide you with product or service offerings or promotions via email or direct mail which ALM feels may be of interest to you. Many of ALM’s subscribers find these email and direct mail promotions valuable, whether they are shopping for merchandise, taking advantage of special offers, or purchasing unique services. You may opt-out of having your personal information shared for this purpose, as described in greater detail below.

Partner Products & Services Offered on the Online Services. If you provide personal information to third parties, such as partners, sponsors or advertisers whose services are promoted or advertised on the Online Services, you may be providing your information to both ALM and the third party. Your personal information will be subject to this Policy as well as the privacy policy and practices of such third party. ALM cannot make guarantees or warranties as to the nature of a third party’s use of your personal information.

Third Party Event Sponsors. When you register for an ALM event (including any webinars and recognition dinners) ALM may share the information you provide, such as your name, company name, postal address and email address, with third parties who are sponsoring the applicable event. You may opt-out of having such information shared for this purpose, as described in greater below.

Mobile Carriers. If you access the Online Services through a Device or app, we may also share your information with mobile carriers, operating systems and platforms.

Personal information about you as an individual subscriber or registrant may be shared, regardless of your “opt-out” status, in the following instances:

Compliance with Law: ALM may release information if it is required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to: (1) comply with the law or comply with legal process served on ALM; and (2) protect and defend the legitimate business interests, rights or property of ALM, its users, advertisers, customers, sponsors, advertisers or affiliates.

Vendors: ALM may on occasion use third-party vendors to assist it in performing its business functions, such as mailing statements to subscribers, email distribution, processing data and payments, and providing customer service. Personal information may be shared with these businesses or individuals to allow them to perform their assigned functions, but is limited to that information needed to perform the assigned function, and may not be used for any other purpose.

Organizational Changes: Should ALM undergo a sales, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganization or liquidation, ALM’s accumulated customer information will be treated as an asset and, like other business assets, subject to transfer to or acquisition by a third party. We may also disclose information about our users in connection with a commercial transaction where we, or any one of our businesses, is seeking financing, investment, support or funding.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

ALM is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of websites to which it may link. This Policy applies solely to information collected by ALM. You should consult the respective privacy policies of any applicable third parties to learn more about their privacy practices.

PROTECTION OF YOUR INFORMATION

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, ALM has put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to protect the information ALM collects online. Please understand, however, that while we try our best to safeguard your personally identifiable information once we receive it, no transmission of data over the Internet or any social media or other public network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

You need to help protect the privacy of your own information, including maintaining the confidentiality of any account information or access credentials. You must take precautions to protect the security of any personally identifiable information that you may transmit over any public or untrusted network by using encryption and other techniques to prevent unauthorized persons from intercepting or receiving any of your personally identifiable information. You are responsible for the security of your information when using unencrypted, open access, public or otherwise unsecured networks.

A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT CHILDREN AND NON-U.S. USERS

The ALM site is directed to a general audience and not directed to those under the age of 18. ALM asks that minors not submit any personal information. ALM does not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 18 years of age and if we obtain actual knowledge that a user is under 18 years of age, we will take steps to remove that user’s personal information from our systems.

The Online Services is operated in the United States and is intended for users located in the United States. If you are located anywhere outside of the United States, please be aware that information we collect, including personal information, will be transferred to, processed and stored in the United States. The data protection laws in the United States may differ from those of the country in which you are located, and your personal information may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement in the United States according to the laws of the United States. By using the Online Services or providing us with any information, you consent to the transfer, processing and storage of your information in the United States. You are also consenting to the application of United States federal and New York state law in all matters concerning the Online Services and this Policy.

The laws of the State of New York shall govern any dispute, including those disputes arising from ALM’s use of personal information or otherwise relating to privacy, as specified in the Terms of Use. This Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties.

OPTING-OUT, CORRECTIONS AND CANCELLATIONS

Email: Any recipient of email notices may opt out of receiving them at any time. To opt out of receiving emails, follow the unsubscribe instructions located near the bottom of each service update, newsletter or promotional email, or email your request to ALM@ProducersWeb.com.

If you are a print subscriber and do not wish to receive email bills, renewal notices and other communications regarding your print subscriptions by email, you can email your request to ALM@ProducersWeb.com. Please note that even if you opt out of receiving subscriber communications by email, we may continue to send you subscriber communications by direct mail.

Research Surveys: You may elect not to receive ALM research surveys by using the opt-out link contained in such emails and you may elect not to receive co-branded surveys by unsubscribing from emails from third party partners, as described below.

Postal Addresses. ALM collects postal mailing address information from you so that ALM may fulfill the orders you submit and to inform you of ALM programs, products and services in which you may be interested. You have the right to opt out of receiving postal mailings from ALM. If you do not wish to receive postal mailings from ALM in the future, please send an email to ALM@ProducersWeb.com.

Third Party Partners. ALM selectively makes its postal mailing address list and email list available to third party partners whose products or service offerings may be of interest to you. If you do not wish for ALM to provide either your postal mailing or email information (or both) to third party partners, please specify this in an email to ALM@ProducersWeb.com or send a notice to ALM at the address listed at the end of this Policy.

Third Party Event Sponsors. If you do not wish for ALM to share any information you supply when you register for an event (including any webinars and recognition dinners), such as your name, company name, postal address or email address, please specify this in an email to ALMEvents@ALM.com.

Turning Off Tracking Technologies. You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a persistent or session cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off such cookies through your browser settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser’s Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies. However, cookie management tools provided by your browser will not remove Flash cookies. To learn how to manage privacy and storage settings for Flash cookies, please click here. It is important to remember that many of ALM’s services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. For example, ALM needs first-party cookies to log you in to read stories that require registration or a subscription. In that case, you may set your browser to block third-party cookies and allow ALM’s first-party cookies only.

Google Analytics. Google is one of the companies that we use to serve advertising and perform analytics on some of the Online Services. We and third party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to help implement the above uses of your information. To learn about Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs for the Web, click here. To learn more about how Google uses cookies in advertising, you can visit the Google ad and content network privacy policy located here. You can opt out of receiving interest-based Google ads, or customize the ads Google shows you, by clicking here. ALM also uses third party services for remarketing ALM’s products and services, such as Google’s Customer Match via the Google platform, whereby we will deliver targeted ads to you based on your prior usage on the Online Services. If you want to opt-out of remarketing, please email us at ALMLegal@ALM.com.

Network Advertising Initiative. Some of our advertising service providers may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative, which offers a single location to opt out of ad targeting from member companies. However, if you opt-out of receiving targeted ads in this manner, you will continue to receive advertising messages from us after you opt-out, but other members of the Network Advertising Initiative will not be able to target you based on your use of the Online Services and/or third party websites. If you would like more information about advertisers’ use of tracking technologies and about your option not to accept these cookies, you can go to http://www.networkadvertising.org. If you would like to learn more about how interest-based information is collected and to know your choices about not having information used in this manner, you can go to http://www.aboutads.info.

“Do Not Track” Signals. Some third party browsers provide “do not track” machine readable signals for websites which are automatically applied by default and therefore do not necessarily reflect our visitor’s choice as to whether they wish to receive advertisements tailored to their interests. As a result, at this time, ALM does not respond to browser “do not track” signals or other similar mechanisms. Go to http://www.networkadvertising.org or http://www.aboutads.info if you wish to learn more about your options to not accept tracking cookies for the purpose of receiving targeted interest-based advertisements. Please note that the-opt out is cookie-based and will only affect the specific computer and browser on which the opt-out is applied.

OTHER IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES

Your California Privacy Rights: A Notice to California Users (California Civil Code Section 1798.83). Under the California “Shine The Light” law, California residents may opt-out of ALM’s disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Any California resident may choose to opt-out of the sharing of such personal information with third parties for marketing purposes at any time by directing such request to ALMLegal@ALM.com.

For the avoidance of doubt, it is important to understand that this opt-out shall not prohibit any disclosures made for non-marketing purposes.

Corrections/Cancellations and Questions.
Upon your request, ALM will provide you with its record of the personal information you gave ALM at registration. For security reasons, this information will only be sent to the email address on file for the subscriber ID associated with it. With respect to corporate or law firm accounts, aggregated or individual user history may be shared with the account holder, upon request. If you have any questions about this Policy or would like ALM to correct any of your personal information, you can email your corrections to ALM@ProducersWeb.com. We will endeavor to comply with your requests as soon as reasonably possible, but changes requested of us may not be effective immediately. We are not responsible unless required by law, to inform third parties with whom we have already shared your information of any changes requested pursuant to this section. We are not responsible for removing information or causing information to be removed from the databases or records of such entities.